January

It's hard to believe it, but another month has gone by! Will is really motoring around now -- if he's awake, he's on his feet. He hasn't figured out how to walk without help yet, but I think our days our numbered. He loves to cruise around the furniture and pull himself up on just about anything these days.

We think we can officially count his first word as "uh oh." His favorite game is to drop things, say uh oh, and then bend down and pick it up. Repeat. And repeat. I have a feeling that his early use of this phrase is not going to bode well for us in the future. I am picturing lots of "uh oh" moments to come...:)

On the run...

After 8 months of pretty much just talking about the little guy and all of his accomplishments, one of the grown ups in the house actually has something to report -- Over the weekend I completed my first half marathon! Our friend Chris was nice enough to be willing to slow down long enough to run it with me and we finished in just under 2 hours. It was a great experience and Will and Todd were there to cheer me on -- and what a cheering section they were! :)

Here are my faithful boys up early and waiting to see us run by!



Chris and I in all our post race glory...



Will is really much more interested in my medal than he is in his mama!



I'm sure the next post will be back to the same old baby news...:)

December in pictures

A white Christmas

I think Will's first Christmas was a good one! He had a great time and charmed everyone he was around the whole week. After spending time with Todd's family before Christmas we packed up and went to Nebraska and he was a great little traveler again. It was COLD when we got there, but it was great because Will's first Christmas was a white one!

Check me out in one of my many pairs of first Christmas pjs...



Opening presents is fun!



Dad, can you explain this to me?



And of course we couldn't miss the chance for a photo op in the snow...



Overall, it has been a great Christmas season. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family that we have had the chance to celebrate with during the holidays. There is no doubt that the little guy has a few fans...:)

Christmas - Part 1

Will is getting good mileage out of this first Christmas...he has already raked it in and the big day isn't even here yet! On Saturday his godparents, Chris and Melissa, brought Will his first Christmas present. As you can see here, it's a big hit...


Chris and Melissa just had a little girl and Will and Elyse had to take some pictures in their matching Christmas pjs. I'm not sure if Will is trying to eat her or kiss her, but we'll go with kiss! He loves his new little friend, although she's not quite up to his speed yet...



Then on Sunday we had Christmas with Todd's family. The little guy cleaned up! Here he is opening some of his gifts with his grandpa.


Now we are in Nebraska and he will be celebrating a white Christmas! It is cold here so he has to bundle up, which he is not so used to, but we promise to have at least one picture in the snow. :)

Santa is my homeboy

After being baby Jesus we went and had the other mandatory Christmas experience -- Will went to see Santa! He did a great job and treated Santa just like everyone else -- he laughed at him. :)

Here is the official picture from the day that the photographer took...they even made us sign a waiver to use him as an example photo.

And then we had to take another one to show off his cool shirt -- compliments of Aunt Jess! I don't think Santa quite knew what to think of being Will's "homeboy."

All in all it was a great first experience with Santa...of course we'll see how it goes next year when he actually knows what is going on!

Away in a manger

Will spent his 7th month birthday in interesting fashion...he was baby Jesus! Our church is having Old Town Bethlehem this weekend and we were the nativity family for Saturday night. God obviously had a hand in the evening as Will was incredible all night. He smiled and laughed and charmed anyone who came by, took pictures with more kids than Santa, and all for 3 1/2 hours! Our little Jesus didn't spend much time in the manger and definitely didn't look like a newborn babe, but he was the star of the evening and you could see the joy in people's faces as they came to see him. It really was a cool night, although exhausting for all of us! There were literally hundreds of pictures taken of us all night, but here are a couple that were actually on our own camera...